Today the BCC men's group viewed Session Two of the John Ortberg series, The Life You've Always Wanted, Slowing Down and Celebrating. John says we are a people plagued by "hurry sickness", a disease of the soul! The cure is to practice "slowing" and solitude. Also, God commands us to be joyful, to celebrate life and the good things He has given.
Ortberg gave us some practical steps to help us to slow down and celebrate including practicing solitude, ... take time to reflect each day. Plan an 8 hour period of solitude with nothing to do, no contact with people, media. Just quiet.
Some other "slowing" exercises are: deliberately driving in the slow lane, eat your food slowly, get in the longest line at the grocery check out and let someone get in front of you!
He also said that hurried people cannot love. It's a matter of priorities. If we are trying to accomplish what we want rather than what God wants we will miss the work God has set for us to do. God wants us to love people and we have to set aside other things to do that. Opportunities to love and help people come at unexpected times and we have to be ready. We have to train ourselves (there's that word train again!) to be the kind of people that catch those opportunities and see that God has placed them there for us.
Please add your comments, thoughts and experiences in putting slowing and celebration into practice and we'll see you next Saturday at 7AM for coffee and donuts and the next installment of life in the slow lane!
God bless!
........BCCMan
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3 comments:
Right after the mtg i went to the gym which was very crowded and i had to deal with people using the machine I wanted to use! Can you imagine!? I had to go find another machine or wait!! Sheesh! Then I ran some errands. Oh, the Saturday traffic on Delware Ave! I couldn't choose the longest line at the CVS, there was only one, half-way to the back of the store! And the pharmacy was out of my prescription med and wouldn't call around to see if another store had it. I deserve better service don't you think?
So anyhow, what's with Ortberg and that "slowing" thing. I didn't get it. Did you?
While this blogspot might be directed toward discussions . regarding the topics discussed at the Men's Group, tonight I felt strongly to share personal feelings.
It was sad to listen to our brother talking about the tragedy in his life. Death "especially accidental death"is among the most painfull human experiences. It was great that we prayed for our brother, and tried to comfort him.
I felt burdened and down when Mike had to remind us of the great pain our brother was going through,and how he "mike" and maybe others felt that there was need for more support to our brother.
Throughout the day, I quentioned my response toward the issue on hand, and asked for a more inspired sensitivity to the needs of the people around me.
Anonymous makes a very good point. One which I think is very relevant to the concept of "slowing". Are we actually willing to be "interrupted" from our program to meet a need God has placed before us or is it more important to us to stick to our schedul
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